We caught up with Snatch label owner Riva Starr for an in depth interview on his latest artist album ‘Definition of Sound’, up coming shows and releases. Starr’s tracks have been a stable feature on Friday night on BBC Radio 1, also gaining huge support from peers alike. One of the in demand producers with labels Hot Creations, Cajual Records, Defected, Saved Records and adding Crosstown Rebels to the list with a remix of Gorgon City ‘Money’.

Can we start by talking about your plans for the summer and what you have in store for Sonar.

Throughout the summer months, I have been booked to play a variety of festivals and parties across the globe; including Extrema Outdoor and We Are Fstvl. Alongside this, there will be a little ‘Definition of Sound’ tour going ahead. In June, I will be attending Off Week Sonar, where I will be hosting my annual party at the Macarena Club on the Wednesday. It’s a very small intimate club, which only holds around 100 people so most of the night it’s one-in, one-out, unfortunately but it’s always fun to play. Furthermore, everyone involved in the Snatch family, around 10 DJs, will be playing back to back throughout the night; I’ll be playing with Jesse Rose, so that’s going to be a big house party vibe. I really enjoy playing on the Wednesday because it’s a little more chilled and I get to catch up with some industry friends, usually we have a lot of fun and play till around eight in the morning. On the Sunday, I am going to be performing on the terrace at the W hotel to finish the week off. I plan only to perform at small intimate events this year, so I don’t think I’ll be planning anything else for Sonar.

Any news on Ibiza’

This year in Ibiza, there should be a few parties going on throughout the summer, with a few gigs at Space on Sundays in June and others being discussed as we speak. I will be definitely doing the 31st anniversary of Space party in May, which I am pleased to announce, as it’s possibly their last year on the island.

Have you never thought about taking up a residency on island’

I’ve never really contemplated taking up a residency on the island. It’s extremely hard work to do a whole season and I’m a little too busy working on other projects to commit all my time into one thing.

Do you think the island has lost some of it’s pulling power with Space and Carl Cox calling time on residencies’

No, I think the island is in pretty healthy at the moment. It’s forever changing all the time, which is good, bringing new sounds and faces each year. Furthermore, I don’t believe Carl is calling time on his residency due to the island losing it’s pull. It’s in good shape to be honest.

Let’s talk about your current album ‘Definition of Sound’ which has getting some fantastic reviews but how it all come about’

Having had huge success with ‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’, I was coming from a very weird experience. Things began to spiral out of control because when you produce such a huge track with a mainstream name remixing it, people start to question where do I belong, to the mainstream, to the underground, where I actually feel more comfortable. I’ve never really changed my style and I will always continue to do my thing but because of the big remix and huge chart success, people started to think that I belonged to the EDM scene or something; which is not the case. It was like that for a minute mind you but it was pretty stupid to be honest because my style has never changed and I will continue to have fun while I produce. Once I had completed that project, I got straight into my future plans and began defining my sound once again. I decided to release a bunch of EP’s and put the finishing touches to the album. The album was the final project and actually became the title for the album – ‘Definition of Sound’.

The response from critics has been fantastic, you must be pleased.

Yeah 100%, it’s the sound that I’m feeling at the moment and pushing through my label ‘Snatch’ and I’m totally happy with it. The reviews have been amazing and lots of people have been playing some of the tracks off the album, which is fantastic. If you check on traxsource, I think pretty much every track is in the chart and even on beatport it’s charting really well. Usually, when you release an album sometimes people pick one or two tracks they like, it’s very rare that they pick nearly all of the tracks; so yeah, I’m pretty happy with how well it’s doing. It’s even getting a lot of love on the radio. I’ve worked hard at creating my sound over the last couple of months and I can hopefully put a closer on the mainstream project.

Could you tell us your favourite track from the album’ Ours has to be ‘In the Midnight Hour’.

It changes all of the time because at them moment, I’m in love with the track ‘without you’. ‘In the Midnight hour’, is pretty rough as well, to be honest all the tracks are pretty good because I didn’t want to put any fillers in there. All the tracks have been road tested and 100% certified. Of course, you can play them depending on the hour of the party, some of them are for the early hours and some of them are for peak time but that’s the way I like it; it sounds like a night out with Riva Starr in the club. Like I said, I’m really pleased with the final product and have already moved on, working on the next couple of EPs and projects.

Could you tell us a bit about the next few EPs and projects you plan to release’

I have a few remixes and EPs being released shortly, one of them being on Hot Creations titled ‘Dippin’ Side’. I’m really pleased with the response it’s getting at the moment, with Annie Mac airing it on her show last Friday.

Anything else we should be excited about’

I’ve got the new Hot Creations EP and a few remixes, one on Crosstown Rebels for Gordon City and another for the 10th anniversary of Audion’s ‘Mouth to Mouth’ which features on Spectral Sound with remixes coming from Jamie Jones, Dubfire, Carl Craig, Denise and Pika and a few others; it’s going to be a big project which I’m very honored to be a part of. I have a remix of Terranova’s edit of Stero MC’s ‘Good Feeling’, coming out in the next couple of months and a track on Moon Harbor with my good friend’s Paul C and Paolo Martini. I also plan to bring out another original EP on Snatch Records with Romanthony providing a superb vocal mix. Currently, I’m trying to finish the ‘In Dubb Sonar’ compilation for release on Snatch. It’s a bit more dubbyer sounding than the previous compilation we produced for the BPM festival and very much more underground in music choice but that’s another side of Snatch, I really like to push. The BPM compilation charted really well and lots of people are still playing the tracks today, so we wanted to keep on doing it and hopefully bring about the same success.

You have worked with some of the best in the business but is there any one you haven’t worked with that you would like to’

Well there is plenty of people of course, I have actually worked on a lot of collaborations, even if its not working on music: for example, we’ve have been doing lots of exchange through the label. To be honest, I’ve have pretty much worked with everyone in my wish list but who’s to say I wouldn’t be willing to work more talent people.

Your label Snatch has been doing some real damage lately, but why do you think it has been so successful’

The Label has been running for six years now, well six years this month, it’s in the top twenty labels on beatport overall and something like fifth in the tech-house labels. We continue to work extremely hard at the label, working with lots of talented people over that time. We will continue to work hard, pushing and taking the label forward.

Will you be taking the label in the direction of your album, more big room sounding’

Big Room, No, well maybe when I release some material but I’m trying to push more underground sounding material; stuff that I like to play in the clubs. I don’t really want it to become associated with that big room sound but of course we like to release everything that fits within my set’s from the supper dubby slow groovers to the big time bangers. For example, we have a EP from German producer Larse, who is excellent, providing a more techno sounding EP for the label. However, I don’t mind as long as it fits within the ethos of the label and my style and taste. It needs to remain like this because this is why people have come to love the label.

How did you feel when Radio 1 selected you set from Miami Music Week to play as their classic set on the essential mix’

It’s always great to hear your music on the radio, especially when its being broadcast on the essential mix. I only found out on the day, that they were selecting my set from WMC. I was surprised to hear the set sounding so fresh, the style I played back then hasn’t really changed much from what I’m doing now; that kind of house sound is coming back. I would play most of them tracks now and it would still work. So I’m really happy Radio 1 chose to air that set. It’s still sounding current. Hopefully, when I play, I try to make my sets sound different and don’t conform to one sort of sound or trend. If you can achieve that, it’s a very good result and your sound still remains modern.

Festival season is just around the corner; do you have anything lined up’

The first festival of the year, will be Groove Fest in Malta. Really looking forward to kicking off the festival season and road testing some new material. This involves my third raw cuts EP, containing three banging tracks, which I’m really excited about. Most of the stuff I will be playing will be exclusive; I will be doing some re-edits and smashing up some old stuff. So it’s going to sounding pretty fresh.

Will you be adding any new equipment to your setup this season’

Currently, I play with drum machine and have DJ tools dedicated to the CDJs. This is how the raw cuts EP’s came about because I was playing live, mixing vocals, beats and drum samples and found they worked really well together. So I decided to produce them and make them into proper tracks. This is how the raw cuts EP’s were born, which is pretty nice.

Did you use any new software or hardware to produce the album’

I’m using the loop trotter a lot, which is a mixer and distortion unit. You can feel that distortion on the bass, when playing ‘In The Mid-Night Hour’. I’m pretty much basic when using plugins and stuff, I like to use good sounding samples for the drums and synths which are pretty much old school.

What’s your thought process when starting to produce a track’ Do you follow the same procedure each time’

Honestly, it really all depends, no rules, when starting a track. It could be from a sample or I have something in my head that I want to achieve. It would be boring, if I began making my tracks in the same way all time.

We have to say your press shots and branding are fantastic, who did you get to them’

The guys over at ‘Rabbit Hole’, who have worked with ‘Cold Play’, have done a fantastic job with the branding for Riva Starr and Snatch. They got this nice photographer to take all the press shots and then got to work on the post production. A lot of people have been feeling them, so I’m really pleased with them.

Riva Starr – Dippin Inside (Beatport)
Riva Starr – Definition of Sound (Beatport)